Hey everyone!

Okay, so... I'm officially Ladybug trash. Like, I don't think I have ever fallen into a fandom quite this hard or fast. By day 2 I had already started a fanfic. I now have three. All of them are pretty short so far.

This fic is going to be about two or three chapters, and honestly, it kind of boarders on crack. I was a little surprised. Like, there isn't a drop of angst in this fic. Not one!

I love these dorks. All of them.

Enjoy!

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Place Your Bets

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"Come on, it's only a matter of time," Kim said loudly.

"Oh yeah, and what makes you think that?" Alix challenged him, always the first to go up against her friend. "What if they're different?"

"Because they're not!" he exclaimed. The entire class was listening to their argument while they waited for their teacher to arrive. It was an argument that been growing day by day. "Everyone has negative emotions. Everyone gets angry, or upset, or scared. And anyone that feels that is in danger of being possessed by an Akuma. It's only a matter of time before they snap."

Everyone looked over at the two empty seats near the front of the class. Adrien and Marinette. Once again, they were late.

By now, everyone in the class had a good understanding of how Akumas worked. How you could be possessed by one and what happened after. They had all been possessed, after all. All except two of them. So far, Adrien and Marinette were the only two students in their class that hadn't been turned yet.

"It is highly likely," Max stated. "84.6 percent of this class has already been turned at some point. And what with Marinette's low confidence sometimes, and Adrien's father, it's surprising that they haven't already."

"It's going to happen," Nino agreed firmly. "It's the Class Akuma Conspiracy. We're being targeted, people!" There were groans from around the room, but much less than when he had first told the theory. As more and more people from their class were Akumatized, more and more of them started to agree with him.

"You and your conspiracy theories," Alya muttered. "There is nothing wrong with this class! You all read my blog, you know how it works. And for the record, my friend is not going to 'snap'."

There was a soft snort from Chloé. "Oh yeah, well, we'll see about that."

"What did you say?!" At the not so thinly veiled threat, Alya was on her feet in a flash and Nino had to hold her back. It was well known that Chloé was the cause of well over half of the class being turned into an Akuma.

"I hate to say it, Alya, but half the time Mari does look like she's about to snap," Mylène said softly. "And I'd hate to see what would happen if Adrien ever turned her down."

"Which he totally will," Chloé cut in.

Alya's fists clenched, and Nino gave her a hard yank down into her seat. He gave her a look as if to say 'don't start anything'.

"Adrien will snap first, I think," Nathanaël piped up, his voice still quiet. He didn't look up from his notebook as he spoke. "Marinette is strong. And she bounces back quickly. But Adrien... we all heard how his father talked to him last week. If he goes through with that threat to home school him again, I don't think he'd handle it."

Alya was still fuming, she looked to Nino, waiting for him to defend his best friend, only to find him starting at the desk dejectedly. She shot him a glare he gave her a grim frown. "He's got a point," he said quietly. "He tries not to show it, but that stuff really gets to him, you know?"

"Whatever. I bet that Marinette will snap before my Adrien," Chloé huffed.

"Nah, Nath's right. I think that Adrien will," Kim said.

"I don't think that Mari will get possessed. But yeah, I think Adrien could," Alix put in.

"No, Chloé's right," Sabrina said. "Adrien will win."

Win? Wait, what? Since when did this become a competition?!

"I think they will both be fine," Rose said with a soft smile.

"I don't care," Juleka dead-panned.

"I don't know, Mari is strong, but she's so emotional about everything," Ivan said. His eyes went wide when he realised what he said. "I mean, not emotional emotional. Like, she feels everything really strongly. She's really passionate about everything she does. That's never a good thing when something lets you down."

"Ha! I give her a week before she snaps! Adrien's not going to let her fawn over him forever!" Alya would have jumped at Chloé by now if Nino hadn't sat beside her and stayed holding her hand.

"Statically speaking, they both have very high chances of being possessed, and both likely within the next month." He picked up his tablet and began working away in a new table. "It will be hard to calculate, but if we devise it into five columns, it may work. Which means everyone makes two to five separate bets. We'll go two for Marinette, whether or not she will be possessed, and a time frame. Same for Adrien. And then the fifth is who will be first out of the two of them."

"Put me down for 5€ for Adrien being possessed first."

"Only five, Kim?" Chloé sneered. "Put me down for 50€ on Marinette going first." There was a sinister look on her face that they all knew meant she was going to make it be that way.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up," Alya said, her hands raised in the air in disbelief. Rage was rolling off her, and for a moment the entire class flinched back in fear. "Are we seriously doing this right now? You're actually betting on this?!"

Alix shrugged. "What's the harm? If they end up being possessed, it's not like this bet would change anything. Besides. We already have bets on if and when Mari and Adrien become a couple. You seemed pretty keen for that one."

"Being possessed by an Akuma is not something to be taken lightly! It's happened to all of you! You remember what it's like!"

For a moment they all just looked at her, then they turned back to Max.

"I'm going to put 5€ on both Marinette and Adrien not turning," Rose told him.

Alya growled in frustration, and Nino chuckled at her. "There's no fight it, Alya. Besides, Alix is right. Stopping this bet isn't going to stop them from becoming an Akuma. If it happens it happens. As long as we're there for them after, right? Besides, I know you have faith in Mari. You can put her down as a no turn."

"You want me to make a bet?" she seethed.

"I'm just saying there's no harm in it," he defended.

"Alright then, I'll make a bet!" she said, her voice rising with her anger. "You better make a new column, Max, because this is my bet. Neither of them are going to be possessed by Akuma. Because I bet that Adrien and Marinette are Chat Noir and Ladybug!"

She was met with silence. Everyone was staring at her in shock, confusion and disbelief. Suddenly Chloé let out a harsh laugh, the laugh was picked up by another and another, till soon the whole class was laughing.

"A-Alya, you sure you want to make that bet?" Nino asked, wiping away a tear. He was laughing that hard? "I mean, I know you have your wild theories, but where did you pull this one from?!"

She glowered at the entire class. "It's not that wild of a theory."

"Ha! Yeah right. If Marinette is Ladybug, then my daddy's bankrupt!" Chloé howled.

"Oh yeah, then how do you explain their absences? Don't admit you haven't noticed it. They're always disappearing, especially when there's an Akuma, or if Lady and Chat are there. And when they get back they have some really bad excuse."

"Please, Alya, they're not stupid reasons. They just have stupid luck," Mylène told her. "Like the time that I was possessed. I stuck them in those pod things. And the other time they were turned into knights, and Juleka turned them into ghosts, and Rose stuck them in her picture book, and-"

"And have you actually seen any of those actually happen?" she asked, giving them all a stern look. "Did you actually see them get trapped or turned, or did they just say it happened? Because when Jalil kidnapped me, Mari disappeared on me really early. She should have been trapped inside the museum, but later she said she was turned into a mummy. I know my best friend, and I know that she's hiding something from me. And from everyone. She gets this look sometimes that says that she wants to talk to someone about something, but when I ask, she says it's nothing. She tells me everything. But if you're trying to keep your double life a secret..." Everyone just continued to stare at her as if she were mad. "Come on, she gives me private interviews! She never does interviews for anyone else. And Marinette always seems to set them up!" Nothing. "They frigging look like them, for crying out loud!"

"Um, Alya. It's a... ah, good theory. But you're forgetting something," Nino told her. "Marinette is the clumsiest person we know. We save her from tripping to her death on a daily basis. You have entire backup plans for when she's around, just in case something happens. I just don't see how someone who can barely sit on a chair without falling off can jump across rooftops."

"Exactly, Marinette is way too clumsy!" Chloé said. "Oh, Max, I forgot to say, I'm putting another 50€ on that loser being possessed by the end of the day."

Anger rose in her, and she pushed out from her desk. She didn't even care when her chair clattered loudly to the ground. She didn't care anymore. She was done with the lot of them.

"Fine then!" she hissed. "You place your stupid bets! But I stand by what I said." With that, she placed her hand under her chin, and flicked it outward in a rude gesture, before storming towards the door. She turned back to them and held her hands up, pulling the fingers at them. As she backed out the door, she felt herself bump into something... or, well, someone.

"Alya, why are you leaving the class while making rude gestures at everyone?" She heard their teacher say in exasperation.

...Oh crap.